Raindust
by PrimClove
Summary: "Everyone just assumes I can't be pretty and smart. Maybe they're right. Because, I know it isn't smart to be in love with Cato." Betrayal, blood, revenge... and love. The feeling Glimmer has tried so hard to ignore.


I've never felt as weak as I do now, sinking to the ground of the Cornucopia with the little District 11 girl in my arms, spear dug deep into her stomach. There isn't any point trying to help her. The light from her eyes is already gone. In a way, I'm proud of her for making it this far. Being honest, I think she deserved to win more than any of us. She didn't kill, she refused to. When Cato had told her to kill me or die, she had dropped her weapons and stepped forward to where he stood, begging him to make it quick. It really should have been me who died. I don't deserve to be in the final three with Cato and Clove. I only made it this far because I stayed with the rest of the careers. People look at me like I'm some idiotic District 1 volunteer. I really don't mind how people see me. All over the Capitol, I'm known as the pretty one, the girl whose name is only remembered because of how stupid it is. But does it really matter who I am, when my death is most possibly only seconds away? I'm past the point of caring if I die, really. There isn't any avoiding it. Cato and Clove can both go home, because they both are from District 2. But my partner is gone, and if I do manage to kill both of them standing in my way of victory, what is there to go home to? Nothing. I've already pushed away everyone that could ever love me.

Clove stands just behind Cato, the large boy looming over her small figure. They don't have any humanity left in them, they have proved that many times.

"Please just get it over with," the words are barely audible as I whisper them. I find myself clutching Rue's cold, limp hand in comfort even though she can't respond to my touch. I hadn't known the girl, really, but I'd known her well enough to know she didn't deserve the fate that had been chosen for her.

Cato stands motionless with his sword firmly held in his left hand. He looks at me with... I'm not sure what it is. Pity? Sorrow?

Clove's footsteps advancing towards me seem to awaken him. The girl has two sharp daggers in her hands and another ten that are clipped to her belt. "If you don't do it, Cato, I swear to God, I will."

The District 2 boy looks at her, clueless, like he's just woken up from a dream and he has no idea where he is or who she is. He continues to gaze at her like that, and his eyes are daring her to do it. They seem to be saying, "Go on, kill her." But just as Clove begins to move forward, Cato raises his sword backwards and tosses his arm right in my direction.

It feels like everything is going in slow motion from then on. I take in what I imagine to be my last breath of air, and brace myself for the impact of the weapon, shutting my eyes. But pain doesn't come, and I think for a moment that I'm already dead. Until I hear Clove's small body falling off the Cornucopia and onto the grass below us.

So Cato doesn't want to go home with Clove. He wants the victory all to himself.

My eyes slowly open, and it takes me a minute to readjust to the dark. Everything comes back into focus, including Cato who sits on the other side of the Cornucopia. Weaponless. Was this part of his sick game? To wait for me to fall asleep and then send the blade right into my heart? But I realise, that he can't. Cato had been holding his sword, the only thing he had to kill me with, and instead he had driven it through Clove's body. He can't hurt me now. Well, other than snapping my neck. But I won't let him close enough to do that.

"What's your plan, now?" I say, releasing my grip from Rue's hand and gently rolling her into a lying position next to me. I won't let them have her. I will bury her, and give her a proper goodbye. Just like she did when Marvel killed Katniss Everdeen.

"It might surprise you, Glimmer," I shiver at the way he says my name, "but I don't have one anymore. You're supposed to be dead by now."

"Then why aren't I? Because please, don't wait for me to fall asleep. It won't be very exciting for the Capitol to watch you kill the remaining tribute when they can't fight back," I say acidly.

"This might shock you, but I don't plan to kill you either. I'm done," he says.

We just sit there for a while. I'm waiting for Cato to come to his senses and realise the only way for him to get home is to get rid of me, but he doesn't seem to be thinking. All he's doing is lying on the other side of the Cornucopia with his head tilted back, his eyes closed.

"I'm not as stupid as I look, you know," I finally break the silence.

It's still fairly dark, but the sun is coming up from below the trees and I think I see the District 2 boy smile.

"I know. People just assume that you can't be pretty and smart," he says. "Do you really think I would have saved you if I thought you're useless?"

And then it hits me. Memories. Flooding into my brain. So many that it hurts. And once they all slow down, I'm left remembering the Tracker Jacker's nest falling onto the floor and everyone running off, leaving me screaming and shaking in pain as every part of my body burned from the mutts stings. It was then that I remember hearing Cato's footsteps coming back, ignoring the cries from the other Careers to let me die. He had picked me up and carried me into the lake, and, when I was on the verge of dying, given me almost all of the medicine that had been meant for _his _stings.

"I thought that was a halucination. Clove told me that I made my own way into the lake," I say, more to myself than anyone else.

"Clove doesn't... _Didn't_," he corrects himself, "like to think that I have any humanity left in me."

The Gamemakers must be getting bored of the small chatter already, because a sudden wind picks up. A cold, icy wind that makes me shiver continuously. I pull myself into a ball and suddenly regret giving my jacket to Clove when she was suffering from hypothermia. Would things have been different if she had died days ago? Maybe.

I look over to Cato, who is looking at me fixedly, studying me as if I'm something he hasn't seen before. He looks at me like he looked at cotton candy the first time he saw it. "Are you cold?" he asks.

"No," I reply without thinking, but my shivering says otherwise. My arms ache from the cold and my fingers feel numb.

"Good," he smirks, "because I'm not giving you my jacket."

I roll my eyes but don't talk back, because after a few days, I'm used to his stuck up remarks.

Claudius Templesmith's voice makes up both look up at the sky in alert. As a habit, I put my hand to the belt of my pants and try to grab a knife, but the sheath is empty. "Attention, attention, remaining tributes. There has been... _issues_, with the Capitol's hovercraft. You will remain in the arena until further notice, and all cameras seem to be having difficulties. Orders from the head Gamemaker say that the remaining tributes will not be able to continue fighting until further notice. Stay near the cornucopia at all times. Thankyou, and may the odds be ever in your favour."

I gasp, and notice I've stopped shivering. The wind is gone. The mockingjays have stopped singing. I can't hear Tracker Jackers buzzing anymore. The sky is no longer shielded with lines, and instead is clear and not protected. I can't see the faint outline of the forcefield like I could before, and instead all I'm looking at are endless trees, going back and covering hills that are spread all around us. It seems that everything the Capitol has made here, is gone.

The last thing we hear before the announcement is shut off, is a gunshot.

It makes me jump, but Cato just stays motionless, lying on his back like he has been for a while now. I start to think he's asleep, but suddenly his feet push him up into a standing position and a smile breaks out on his face. Not the usual, cocky smirk, but a true smile. "Guess I don't have to kill you just yet anyway," he says.

o0O0o

_In the dream, I'm running through the meadow of waist high grass, directly under the melting sun. The screams of Katniss Everdeen continue from the direction I'm heading. Clove promised she would wait for me to kill her, but I'm glad that she didn't. I always admired the courage that Girl on Fire had, and would prefer my last memory of her to be dangling from a tree above me, smiling. Not tied up with the patterns of Clove's blade all over her body. But I can still hear Thresh's footsteps behind me, and in that instant I choose to watch Katniss die over dieing myself. No one had ever bothered to pay attention to it, but I have speed. I'm already twisting through branches in the forest on the other side of the meadow when Thresh is still making his way through the middle of the large area of dry grass. _

_I finally come to the group of careers that surround the District 12 girl. Her hands are bound to the branches above her with thin wire that cuts into her wrists and small designs have been made all over her by what is definitely Clove's knife blade. _

"_Just in time," Marvel is the first to notice my presence. His mouth curves up at the sides. Not a smile, exactly. "Here she is, Cato," he says over his shoulder to the blonde District 2 boy._

_I look to Katniss Everdeen, who continues to struggle although the fight is fading from her every second. "Run," she whispers. And that's when I see Cato stepping forward, sword in hand. _

_I don't run, though. I don't follow District 12's instructions. I should, because I know that I could outrun all of them. But the moment of hesitation that I use, sends Cato's sword flying through the air, aimed straight at my heart. _

"_You should have left us while you could, Glimmer," he says. _

_This time, the sword doesn't swerve in Clove's direction like it had on the cornucopia, but instead is driven straight through my heart. I don't feel pain. I don't feel or hear the crunch of the leaves and twigs as I fall to the ground. All I hear are mockinjays singing, and... _

And my own petrified, ear piercing scream as I am tossed out of my nightmare and into another one. But this isn't a nightmare anymore, although it looks like it. I'm back on the golden Cornucopia, in the same position I was before I fell asleep; stretched out with my head tilted towards the sky and arms sprawled in uncomfortable angles by my sides. My palms are bloody and cut from where my fingernails have dug into the skin.

Cato is looking at me from across the Cornucopia with that same emotionless expression that he always wears. Only now I know that it's just a mask. I had seen the pain in killing his District partner earlier.

"Dreaming about me?" he says. In his hand, he holds the sword that he had thrown at Clove. It's still darkly covered with blood that's now dry.

"Actually, yes," I respond, deciding to humour him. It partially works. A small smirk is forming on his face, when I add, "you killed me."

This seems to delight him more as the smirk quickly transforms into a large grin. "Just what every guy wants to hear," he says.

I try to hold back a laugh, and it results in a set of hiccups. I think this is the first time I have smiled since the Games had started. I hiccup again and Cato stares at me thoughtfully.

"You know," he says, "someone once told me that kissing gets rid of a bad case of hiccups."

I find myself trying to contain a smile once more as I open my mouth to speak. "Really?" I say. "Well, too bad you're not going to be able to test that theory any time soon." I get the sentence out just before my body jumps and I hiccup again.

So, we sit like that for a while, as I imagine what will happen once the Games officially are off break. Will I find the same fate as Clove and Rue? Truthfully, I don't feel the need to know that right now, so instead I ask the other question that has been on my mind since the night before.

"Cato," I say slowly. "Why did you kill Clove instead of me? You could be home right now."

"I don't know," he says harshly. "But don't make me regret it."

Something tells me that he does have his reasons for keeping me alive, but just doesn't want to share his thoughts. Something else tells me to keep quiet about it. I have seen Cato when someone annoys him. I have seen him snap the District 4 boy's neck in an instant after Katniss Everdeen and Rue blew up our moutain of food and weapons. What's to say that he wouldn't do the same to me? He's kept me alive this long, but I'm not going to trust him fully yet.

"This is crap," he mutters, shaking his head in frustration.

I scoff, amused that only now does he realise. He looks up at me with curious blue eyes, and they trail down my body all the way to my cut, blood-covered hands with torn nails and raw skin. I admit, they aren't as pretty as they were for the interviews in the Capitol. Only now do I feel the pain and stinging in my fingers and palms, letting out a soft whimper of pain.

"What happened?" he asks.

"Nightmare," I say vaguely, not really wanting to tell him the gory details and thinking he wouldn't want to hear them anyway, but he continues to look at me in curiosity.

"The one where I killed you?" he says.

I try to block out the images of the dream by shutting my eyes, but it only makes more pictures and memories flood into my mind. I can feel a sob rising from the back of my throat. I will _not _cry in front of the District 2 boy. And just as the sob reaches the front of my mouth, I seal my lips together tightly and the sob results in another hiccup. I groan inwardly and secretly wonder if what Cato said about kissing is true.

"Thinking about my offer to make the hiccups go away?" he says.

If the cameras were on, I would probably make a flirty remark and make my voice sound bubbly and high, but there isn't any point now. "You wish," I say.

We sit there for half an hour, then another hour, neither of us knowing what to do. We will have to move and collect food soon. Maybe a rabbit and some berries, because lately we haven't had many parachutes coming down from the sky. I wonder if no one has been able to get gifts to us, or if they just don't want to.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere for now, so why don't you just spit out the question you have been dying to ask the whole day?" he says.

Everything comes out in a rush, and I can't seem to stop it. "I want to know why you saved me from the Tracker Jackers nest. And then on the Cornucopia, you killed your District partner instead of me when you've shown how heartless you are. I remember on the first day of the Games, when Thresh almost had me, you stopped running after Girl on Fire and came to help me. Why? You're going to have to kill me anyway," I don't stop for a breath, and by the end I feel like I'm about to choke. He looks at me steadily, and once again I feel so angry about his stupid, emotionless shield.

"I think you're the smartest of them all," he says. "If you had died in the bloodbath, I'm not sure I would have survived this long," although emotionless, I can see that he is telling the truth. "All Clove wants to do is kill, fight, win, kill. She's stupid and irrational. But you, are smart _and _pretty. How can I let someone so rare just die?" It sounds like he's saying the last sentence sarcastically, but I'm not sure at the moment. It was more of an answer than I had hoped for, but at the same time I'm dissapointed.

"Thankyou," I say, and fall into another set of hiccups.

o0O0o

It was decided that Cato would take the first watch, but when I wake, he's gone. It's become a habit of mine to panic when I'm alone, because I don't know if I will be able to stop myself from crying when no one is there to stop me. Rue's body was lifted into the sky just before I fell asleep, and it was only Cato holding me back that kept me from trying to protect her.

"Cato?" I call as I turn to hear footsteps in the bushes, moving towards me at a slow, strange pace. I'm almost surprised to see it's Cato. Glad that he's here, but at the same time dissapointed that my moment of being alone is gone. Though, all those feeling dissapear when I see his strained, cut, bloody face. And three arrows sticking out of his arm.


End file.
